Kids blog: Abby's Aquarium Adventures

Humans waddling for penguins

03/06/2011

We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.

Humans waddling for penguins

Hi Sea Fans!

Well, I hope you all saw it...SABC 3 last monday and this morning at 5:45am. Yes, very early, but they tell me that 5:30 - 6am is the kiddies' slot. For those of you who missed it, "Abby's Aquarium Adventures" and "Predators" were shown on the show and the author, Heidi, read the books to a group of very cool kids.

Actions, jumping around, looking at the fish - it was all good fun. You even got to see some of the animals in the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town!

That's not all that's happened recently, the PENGUIN WADDLE took place this last week and I got to join the waddlers for the last 15km of their 150km walk.

A few penguin-mad ladies decided that they had to do something to make people more aware of what's been happening to our little black and white friends, the African Penguins. Did you know that humans used to eat penguin eggs? We also used to collect their poo!! How gross! Go to http://www.penguinpromises.com/ and you'll see a bit of what went on at the waddle.

Anyway, recently I went over to the penguin trainers to chat to them about how we can make a difference for the penguins and to see what was going on and this is what I saw:

Aquarists have such an interesting job, one minute we can be feeding sharks, the next we're weighing baby penguins. Isn't the one in the photo just adorable?! (We weigh the babies to check that they're getting enough food and that they're healthy). While the babies were being weighed in the back, some of the adults were being trained.

When they are moved from one area to the another, all the trainer has to do is lay down a plank and the penguin will walk across to the other side. This is quite important because it means that they don't need to be handled unneccessarily by us.

Seeing as it's the Year of the Penguin, why not go the Penguin Promises website and see what you can do to make a difference. Humans have messed a lot of things up, but we can also do a LOT of good if we're just willing to try.

Have a great week Sea Fans! Till next time.
Cheers
Abby

For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com

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